A DOCTOR discovered by a North Wales auditor to have perpetrated the biggest-ever one-man fraud against the NHS was struck off the Medical Register yesterday.

GP Dimitrios Padelis, 46, of Bradley Road, Norwood, south London, defrauded the NHS of millions of pounds in a "grotesque breach of trust", said John Shaw, chairman of the General Medical Council's professional conduct committee.

His offences were discovered by North Wales audit manager Ian Hughes.

The 36-year-old spotted Ysbyty Gwynedd had paid two invoices from the same company for exactly the same amount.

Mr Hughes then found nine invoices had been paid twice to the company, prompting a major police investigation.

The fraud was estimated to have totalled more than #3m.

Subsequent investigation by North Wales Police and the Metropolitan Police revealed the fraud had been carried out at around 400 health trusts in the UK and Ireland.

Padelis is currently serving four years at Ford open prison in West Sussex. At the end of his trial last May he was also ordered to pay #100,000 costs.

The committee heard that as a GP he was managing director of Allcare Agency in South Norwood, which provided locum doctors at short notice to NHS hospitals around the country between 1991 and 1995.

During this period he submitted fraudulent and duplicate invoices to the NHS, perpetrating a "clever and highly intelligent fraud," according to the judge who sentenced him at Southwark Crown Court.

He had increased the hours on time sheets on about 10-20pc of his agency's invoices. He also re-faxed invoices to hospitals if they were not paid within 30 days, leading to double payments.

Trevor Burke, counsel for Padelis, told the hearing in central London that the "NHS did not suffer" as a result of his fraudulent activities. He said the NHS always owed Padelis more money for work done by his agency locums than he obtained by fraud.

Ordering Padelis to be struck off, the committee concluded that had he succeeded in his fraud, patients would have suffered while he "plundered the system".

Mr Shaw said: "Trust is an issue that goes to the very heart of the medical profession and any serious breach of trust in any capacity is a fundamental breach of good medical practice."